What the funding bill says about the border wall

President Donald Trump signed H.R. 1625, the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018” on Friday and one of his campaign promises and legacy agenda items was not included. There was funding for barriers on the southern border, but not for the border wall.

The funding measure laid out $1,571,000,000 for “procurement, construction, and improvements” but restricted U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from using the funds for anything except:

• $251,000,000 for approximately 14 miles of 6 secondary fencing, all of which provides for cross-barrier visual situational awareness, along the southwest border in the San Diego Sector
• $445,000,000 for 25 miles of primary pedestrian levee fencing along the southwest border in the Rio Grande Valley Sector
• $196,000,000 for primary pedestrian fencing along the southwest border in the Rio Grande Valley Sector
• $445,000,000 for replacement of existing primary pedestrian fencing along the southwest border
• $38,000,000 for border barrier planning and design
• $196,000,000 for acquisition and deployment of border security technology

The provision restricts barriers to only “operationally effective designs deployed as of the date of the Consolidated 24 Appropriations Act, 2017.” That excludes all of the prototypes for the border wall that the president hopes to use and that CBP has said would make their jobs easier.